The Acoustic and Folk Category

This category is intended for Acoustic song entries and all unplugged type songs of any style. It is also the category for folk music including traditional and easy listening folk/acoustic styles. A finalist song in the Acoustic Category in 2013, Down To Earth by Kate Diaz, was noticed in the contest and picked up and used as a theme tune by Music Aid International and others. The 2012 winner in this category, Dr James by Katriona Gilmore, is an outstanding song in a traditional English folk style - listen to it below. The 2011 winner in this category, Bloody Good Xmas by Jamie Hawkins, was an acoustic song for Christmas and it created such interest through the contest that it was released as a Christmas Single reaching #2 in the Amazon Best Selling Download charts - see the video below and at YouTube.Winners, Finalists, Semi Finalists, Commended Entries...In addition to the Category Winner there are also many Finalist, Semi Finalist and Commended Entry winners in this category - see the Prizes Page for full details of prizes - and everyone will have their songs heard and examined and rated by industry professionals. Every writer who makes the finals will receive International Copyright Registrations at SongCopyright.org courtesy of the UKSC. Everyone who enters will receive valuable and useful song pitching opportunities and songwriting courses with SongU and also free Broadjam memberships which together are worth US$100. Plus every songwriter is given the judges score for each song and also receives a UKSC Certificate for every song entered with details of the writer's achievement and position. This competition gives a genuine chance to all songwriters to be noticed and discovered by the music industry in London and to have their songs judged and scored by industry professionals. Many entrants who didn't win a category have been noticed and promoted through the contest and have received royalty earning radio play for their entries and many more have been featured in the press, in radio interviews and on prime time television. Many entrants in this contest have been published, or have been signed or produced, by top industry figures who closely follow this event looking for new talent.

Examples:Below are some examples of successful song entries in this category:

Pass It Along by Scott Cook. UKSC Acoustic Category Winner in 2013.

WINNER 2012. This song won the Acoustic / Folk Category in 2012. It is a song in a traditional folk style by singer, songwriter, guitarist and violinist Katriona Gilmore from Knebworth in Hertfordshire. Katriona is one half of the folk duo Gilmore & Roberts who are becoming increasingly well known and popular on the british folk scene. This winning song is an unusual, original and very memorable composition with a catchy hook and a lyrical twist at the end.

FINALISTDown To Earth By Kate DiazAfter achieving a finalist position in the 2012 UK Songwriting Contest Acoustic Category this song was picked up and promoted by Music Aid International. It was also featured at the Dream Green Awards in Atlanta where Kate met former US President Jimmy Carter, the UK's Sir Richard Branson and 27x GRAMMY Winner Alison Krauss.

Following her success in the contest with her demo entry Kate made the video you can see here herself to accompany the song. All proceeds from iTunes downloads of this song go to earthday.org for sustainable energy projects.

Bloody Good Christmas by Jamie HawkinsThis Acoustic / Folk category entry was a favourite with top producer, musical director and UKSC judge Richard Niles who described it as "Bloody briliant! .... powerful, utterly original, articulate, heartfelt, emotional, very well constructed and superb in every way."

The song generated so much interest through the contest that a video was made, the song was remixed, and it was released as a Christmas single. It went straight to number two in the Amazon download charts receiving great reviews and an Amazon five star customer rating.

Katie Riordan by Eamon O'Maonaigh

This song, Katie Riordan, was chosen by the judges as the Winner of the UK Songwriting Contest Folk and Country Category in 2009.

The Folk and Country Category was replaced by two separate categories in 2011 - the Acoustic / Folk Category and the Country Category.

FINALIST ENTRY VIDEOCold Wind Blowing by Daniel Schamroth

Here is a music video that was made after the contest results were published to feature and promote the Finalist song 'Cold Wind Blowing' by British singer-songwriter Daniel Schamroth. A demo of this song was a Finalist in 2012 in the 'Acoustic & Folk Category'. The track on this video is produced by Danny Hembrow and mastered by Pete Maher and the video was directed by Alice Deuchar.